Visual Priming and Framing During the 2020 Democratic Presidential Debates: Electoral Status Predicts Favorable Camera Treatment

Abstract

The 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates provide a unique opportunity to systematically evaluate network visual production choices in a multicandidate context. The joint decision of the Democratic National Committee and NBC to include an expansive field of twenty contenders through “prime-time” debates on consecutive nights (June 26 and 27, 2019) provided for a natural experiment with equal numbers of top- and second-tier candidates randomly assigned to each night. In this preregistered study, we evaluate whether candidates are treated differently in the amount of camera time they receive (visual priming) and types of camera shots they appear in (visual framing) based on electoral status. We replicate a study of the initial two Democratic and Republican 2016 presidential primary debates for each party and that found the top-two candidates received substantially better visual coverage than all others. We confirm and extend these findings by evaluating different operationalizations of electoral status (top-two, top-tier, stage position, and poll standing). Findings suggest that when visual priming is considered, stage position outperforms other electoral status indicators in terms of explaining variance for total camera and average fixation time. In terms of visual framing, head-and-shoulder “one-shots” are better predicted by top-tier status, whereas public opinion poll standing predicts increased time spent in multiple-candidate shots. Finally, appearances in “two-shots” (side-by-side and split-screen portrayals) were not significantly explained by electoral status, likely due to the paucity of these depictions.

La création d’images politiques et le cadrage visuel sur Instagram : Un regard sur la représentation du leadership du Canadien Justin Trudeau

“…While a lot of work had been done on visual framing through more conventional, offline-based visual political communication channels (STEWART, EUBANKS et al 2020;LUNDELL 2010;GRABE and BUCY 2009), a growing number of scholars are taking interest in visual framing on social media platforms with distinct structural and functional properties (MUÑOZ and TOWNER 2017;STEFFAN 2020). This article contributes to this effort by taking a close look at how Trudeau turned to visual framing in his Instagram posts to generate specific political narratives emphasizing and reinforcing specific attributes of his political leadership during the first year following his election as prime minister of Canada.…”